Michael Cramer is the initiator of the Iron Curtain Trail. Over the past 20 years, he has worked with cycling enthusiasts from various European countries to develop the 10,000 kilometre route from the Barents Sea to the Black Sea. We met in Harbke, Saxony-Anhalt, last summer when he gave a lecture to mark the anniversary of the building of the Berlin Wall. Now we arranged to meet online between Berlin and Kirkenes.
It all started for Michael Cramer with the Berlin Wall Cycle Route. ‘I cycled the 160 kilometres around West Berlin for the first time in the summer of 1989, before the border was opened, on the Allied customs route,’ recalls Cramer. He had been living in Berlin since the mid-1970s, first as a teacher and then as a member of the Berlin House of Representatives and the European Parliament. A few months after the border was opened, the bicycle activist cycled around West Berlin on the Kolonnenweg. "The Kolonnenweg in Berlin was asphalted and didn't consist of perforated concrete slabs like the inner-German border. So it was easy to cycle." Even then, he had the idea of a Berlin Wall cycle path. However, it took another ten years before this favourite project became a reality.
As a member of the EU Parliament, however, the now 75-year-old thought far beyond Berlin and Germany. ‘It wasn't just Berlin and Germany that were divided, the whole of Europe was divided.’ With this argument, he did a lot of persuading in the European Parliament in favour of this initiative. In 2005, the time had finally come: the European Parliament voted in favour of the project. Even today, he is proud that this happened with a large majority from all countries and from all political groups.
Michael Cramer first travelled the Iron Curtain Trail in 2005. He was sometimes accompanied by friends or other cycling enthusiasts from the respective countries. They worked out the route together. The aim was to cycle as close as possible to the former Iron Curtain and to cross the border as often as possible; on the other hand, the route should also be easy to manage by bike. Important historical and cultural sites were also to be located along the route. ‘It was a great joint effort by many committed people from all over Europe.’ Cramer has not only cycled the entire Iron Curtain Trail himself in many stages over several years during his holidays, he has also published several cycling tour books: on the Berlin Wall Cycle Path, the German-German Cycle Path and the entire Iron Curtain Trail, initially in three and later in five volumes. Cramer describes the inclusion of the route as EuroVelo Route 13 as a great success for the project.
Michael Cramer cycled the Iron Curtain Trail in Finland for the last time in 2019. "I met a couple from Australia who were cycling this route to learn more about the history of the division of Europe. That made me very happy, of course." He has been offering his guided cycle tours ‘Mauerstreifzüge’ on the Berlin Wall Cycle Path regularly in the summer months since 2001.
He would like to see the Iron Curtain Trail signposted throughout. ‘That would draw even more attention to it and more people would engage with post-war history.’ According to Cramer, remembrance must be made visible. This is the only way to develop a shared view of history across national borders.
